Ingrid Sischy Dies at 63
Photo: Billy Farrell/PatrickMcMullan.com
By Lisa Lockwood
Ingrid Sischy, 63, former editor in chief of Interview and a highly regarded writer on pop culture, art, fashion, entertainment and celebrity, died Friday morning at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The cause of death was breast cancer, according to her friend, Ed Filipowski.
One of the most admired editors in the fashion and art worlds, Sischy was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. She got her start in the art world as editor of Art Forum from 1979 to 1987, which was a major influence in the pioneering of established and new artists. She also brought many female artists to the forefront.
Sischy was a photography and fashion critic of the New Yorker from 1988 to 1996, where some of her milestone pieces were on Robert Mapplethorpe at the height of the AIDS crisis and the Corcoran cancellation and the first profiles on Miuccia Prada, Alexander McQueen and Azzedine Alaia.
She served as editor of Interview from 1989 to 1998 with her partner, Interview president and publisher Sandra Brant. The duo created a chronicle of pop culture in the Eighties and Nineties that blended art, fashion, entertainment and celebrity through high-profile interviews and photography.
In 1997, Sischy became a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and penned cover stories about Madonna, Nicole Kidman and Kristen Stewart, as well as major features on John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons and Jean Michel Basquiat. She also was an international editor of Conde Nast International with Brant since 2008, contributing to German Vogue, French Vanity Fair, Spanish Vanity Fair and Italian Vanity Fair.
In addition to her spouse Brant, she is survived by her mother Claire and brother David Sischy.
Donations may be made in Sischy’s memory to the Studio Museum in Harlem and City Critters of New York.
A memorial service will be announced at a later date.
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